Internet Access

Obviously the correct answer is “free,” but let’s put that aside for a moment. According to C-Net, American Airlines and Virgin America are both going to be offering in-flight internet access to their travelers for somewhere between $10 and $13 per flight:

American Airlines will initially enable 15 of its 767s with broadband, and eventually it will offer Internet connectivity on 500 planes. Virgin plans to provide broadband on all its planes, according to a blog posted on GigaOm Tuesday.

The new service, called Gogo, will cost $12.95 for cross-country flights and $9.95 for flights lasting three hours or less.

As long as the service itself is fast enough to be productive, I don’t mind shelling out $10 for connectivity on a 2 1/2 hour flight. Especially if they manage to hook that deal in to any of the networks that cover airports - pay a fee at the terminal and it covers your in-flight wi-fi, too? Yeah, I’d probably do that.

According to a recent article on Forbes.com, the Denver and Las Vegas airports owe their high placement in the “Wired Airports” rankings to their free wi-fi:

In an increasingly data-dense world, travelers will soon be able to surf the Web from the skies. Until then, however, the next best thing may be to fly out of Denver or Las Vegas: They represent two of fewer than 10 major airports around the world that offer free wi-fi Internet access throughout their public areas. That’s landed them at the top of Forbes.com’s first ranking of Wired Airports.

The fact that there are fewer than 10 major airports in the world that offer free wi-fi is kind of ridiculous.

Increasingly, that will change as cities and airports catch on to the fact that people (I have done this) will route their stopovers through airports where they CAN get online instead of where they can’t.

If I’m flying from SEA to LAX or BUR and I have to sop, I’ll stop in Vegas instead of San Francisco because I know that I can spend my layover online, for free.

According to Wi-Fi Networking News, AT&T has apparently co-opted T-mobile’s deal with Starbucks to provide Wi-Fi access to coffee addicts.

This is a huge step up in the world of Wi-Fi for AT&T, who have previously been off the map as far as I’m concerned. I don’t typically do a whole lot of travel productivity at McDonalds.

In fact, I’ve always camped out at Tully’s when I need wi-fi; it’s free there.

He also adds:

T-Mobile HotSpot subscribers will still be able to access Starbucks locations. Starbucks posted a separate press release stating that T-Mobile will be a roaming partner onto the AT&T network through a side deal; no additional cost is involved. There’s some leverage here, because T-Mobile does have about 2,000 other locations, including some premium airports like San Francisco. Existing roaming/aggregation deals among Boingo, AT&T, and T-Mobile were partly predicated on the airport market, where millions of subscribers to each network pass through each year.

Which I cant quite decipher. It sounds like there’s some possibility that AT&T customers get to use T-Mobile hotspots at airports, and T-Mobile customers get to use AT&T hotspots at Starbucks?

Check out the post for more details.

I always like to write posts where I get to say, on some level, “I told you so.”

JetBlue recently ran a test flight with Wi-Fi for press types to try out, and they got plenty of buzz because of it. Unforutnately for them, it’s all pretty mediocre as far as I can tell. And the first words out of Cnet’s review are:

The biggest problem with JetBlue’s inaugural “BetaBlue” flight, equipped with Yahoo and BlackBerry e-mail and instant messaging, was the fact that there aren’t power outlets on board the aircraft.

Hmmmm. I told you so.

In-flight Wi-Fi is, like internet access most places, going to happen eventually. If I were running an airline, I’d be approaching my service offerings by asking myself a question: if someone put me in a room for six hours and allowed me to bring only what I could easily carry on my person, what would I want in that room?

The list is pretty short, and in order of importance:

• A bathroom
• A power outlet
• The internet
• Snacks

You got that, I’m happy.

JetBlue tend to be pretty forward thinking though, and I’ll be surprised if they ignore the feedback they’re getting.

Just about every airport I end up in has at least one or two Wi-Fi networks available in the concourse. They usually cost between $5 and $7 dollars for 24 hours of access (I’m there for 30-45 minutes), and $20/month for unlimited access. About half the time it’s some sort of T-mobile hotspot, which is pretty good, but at least half the time the network is provided by a company named after some sort of exotic fruit.

Free Wi-Fi is what we all want. I’m sure that eventually that’s where we’ll end up. It’ll just be expected airport infrastructure.

But in the meantime, I don’t have a problem with paying for Wi-Fi access. It’s a service provided by a company, and I don’t want some weird frame in my window shoving ads down my face just so they can cover their costs. I’d pay somewhere between $10 and $20 a month if it meant I could get online at any airport in the country.

The problem is that nothing is everywhere. If I wanted to have Wi-Fi at every airport I might end up in (which I do), I’d probably have to subscribe to three or four different providers, at the least, and several of them would overlap in places. Boy does that sound like wasted money.

Someone should really make an effort to be everywhere. Because the value just isn’t there if you cover 60% of the airports.

American Airlines is hoping to become the first domestic carrier of inflight internet. American plans on working with AirCell, an Illinois based company that has been designing a system to provide onboard Wi-Fi from an antenna to the ground.

The service will probably not be free, and is expected to cost slightly more than comparable existing Wi-Fi HotSpots. It is also expected to run at DSL speeds and will be tested on American’s Boeing 767-200 planes.

However, if you are not willing to pony up for Wi-Fi, the service will still be quite useful, as American plans on offering free Wi-Fi for sponsored travel websites related to hotels, rental cars, restaurants, etc. American has not announced a date for the launch but hopes to do so soon.

I’m currently writing this at JFK International Airport, courtesy of a 10-dollar T-Mobile One-Day Express Pass. The Wi-Fi is spotty, and I spent the first hour quite frustrated as the internet at Gate 21 , Terminal 2, dropped from 11 Mbps to 5.5 to 2, and then finally disappeared altogether.

However, a quick move over to Gate 22, closer to the Starbucks, which appears to be the HotSpot center, has kicked me back up to 11 Mbps, and I’m able to download some episodes of 24. My advice, unless you are going to be stuck at JFK for a while (four hours in my case), or your gate is right next to the Starbucks, don’t bother with the JFK Wi-Fi.

A cool tip from UNEASYsilence. Apparently, Boingo is offering free wifi access in 13 airports to iPhone iusers. By hacking your browser user agent settings, you can trick the network into thinking your Mac or PC is an iPhone. this can be done via the Firefox Plug in User Agent Switcher (UAS.) Full instructions here.

Qantas Airlines’ new A380 jets, which debut next year, will not only be state-of-the-art flying machines. They will also come with inflight wireless internet access, with power sockets available in every seat. In addition, the cabins will come equipped with wide-screen monitors with hundreds of movies and tv shows on demand. Qantas also plan to upgrade this service to its existing planes.

Qantas has yet to release whether this service will be provided free of charge, or what the surfing speed of the wi-fi will be. I’m hoping for at least 10 Mb/s. Addtionally, for those who don’t have wi-fi laptops, the seatbacks will also come equipped with a regular networking cable, and the seatback entertainment will come equipped with minor surfing capabilities for email checking.

OnAir, an inflight entertainment provider owned by Airbus, is planning on offering a new service to allow the use of cellphones, BlackBerrys, and other wireless devices on European flights. OnAir plans on providing this service for carriers such as Air France, BMI, Emirates, Qantas, and Ryanair. There are currently over 30 countries cleared for inflight cellphone use, but the US public strongly dislikes the idea, by over a 2 to 1 margin, so it appears cellphone use will remain available only overseas. Sorry Teresa, but that counts for I-Phone’s too.

JetBlue hopes to unveil onboard Internet access by the end of the year. The service will be provided by LiveTv, which currently provides inflight entertainment to JetBlue and other airlines. JetBlue plans on offering internet access for free, as well as free text messaging, but no cellphone use. Southwest is also exploring inflight internet, but plans on making this a paid serivce.

According to the Wall Street Journal:

After years of discussion and delay, U.S. airlines will start offering in-flight Internet connections, instant messaging and wireless email within 12 months, turning the cabin into a WiFi “hotspot.” Carriers are expected to start making announcements around the end of the summer, with service beginning early next year.

AeroMobile, AirCell,, and OnAir will all offer technologies that airlines can purchase to enable airborne hotspots.

In what many hope will become an international trend, Emirates will become the first airline to allow mobile phones for inflight use, beginning next month. The airline has done numerous safety checks and studies involving the allowance of cellphones on planes. Calls are expected to cost around three dollars per minute, which is well below the current cost for seatback phones.

Alison Overholt reports in the Feb 2007 issue of Fast Company magazine (Web access requires code from page 10 of print mag) that there is hope after the folding of our beloved Connexion service. Two new services are emerging.

“Australian startup ASiQ is shopping around an on-board antenna system weighing just 66 pounds with a mercifully lighter $60,000 price tag…Saudi Airlines will introduce the service in late 2007.”

AND:

“AirCell will operate a series of base stations–just like mobile-phone companies–and equip planes with an “antenna about the size of a Coke can…The network will launch late next year or early 2008.”

According to CNet News, Avis could soon be pairing up with Autonet Mobile to provide WiFi transmitters in its rental cars.

Of course, they assume no liability for accidents while surfing…

My colleague Eric Anderson has just e-mailed me from the airport in Phoenix to inform me that they have free WiFi.

Nice tip! Thanks, Eric.

Technorati Tags: WiFi, Phoenix

Signonsandiego.com in their article ViaSat sticks with goal of onboard Internet service reports that ViaSat will be providing Internet service for private jets, and predict the airline market will “rebound” as a potential source of business.

Last month, ViaSat said it will supply equipment for a satellite-driven broadband-in-the-cabin service offered in partnership with Arinc, a Maryland company that specializes in aviation communications. The systems will be installed on large Gulfstream jets. The company also has a deal to provide the systems to Dassault for its Falcon 7X long haul jet beginning in 2007.

The equipment runs from $275,000 to $350,000, installation is about $100,000. The monthly fee is $4,500 for about 20 hours of use.

According to flightglobal.com, “Boeing has stopped charging for the use of its Connexion by Boeing in-flight broadband Internet offering ahead of the full termination of the services at the end of the year.” Has anyone been using the service for free? We’d like to hear about their experience.

If Glenn Fleishman knows anything (and he usually does), Panasonic is stepping into the void left by the end of Connexion by Boeing, by opening their own in-flight WiFi operation.

According to Fleishman:

Panasonic wants commitments within 60 days from airlines for 500 planes to be equipped; they say they have 150 committed now. Lufthansa has over 60 planes with Connexion and SAS with about 20; I suspect both airlines have signed on.

The antennae used for the Panasonic operation will weigh less and rely on better technology than the Connexion antennae did, giving Panasonic a distinct advantage in a market that has yet to prove profitable.

What I want to know is whether Panasonic has addressed the very real question raised by Robert Scoble about access to electrical power. Who wants to pay $15 for a day of WiFi only to have their computer run out of battery after 2-3 hours?

When retrofitting the aircraft with their antenna, Panasonic should think about throwing in a few power strips as well…

Australia’s Qantas Airlines will test out in-flight telephony on one of its 767’s on domestic routes in 2007.

According to the The Sydney Morning Herald:

Mobile phones will connect to a mini-base station on board the aircraft known as a picocell. This will pass calls through a satellite connection to ground-based mobile networks via a gateway in Norway. The picocell controls the power output of the mobile phones and throws a low radio frequency blanket over the cabin to prevent handhelds from interfering with the plane’s navigation instruments as they try to connect to base stations on the ground.

Users will be billed for the service through their own phone companies. The article doesn’t include any information about charges for the telephony service.

Note: Notice how I didn’t spell Qantas with a “u” this time…